Behrend gave his unconditional support for “blended learning,” a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through the delivery of content and instruction via digital and online media. Through blended learning there is some element of student control over time, place, path, or pace of learning. Blended learning can be effective in traditional “brick-and-mortar” public school when face-to-face classroom methods are combined with computer-mediated activities.

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I used the verb “stupefying” to describe a long process in our nation’s schools that has produced several generations of Americans, dumbed down and resulting in more than half who are functionally illiterate, nor can do math, and, as a recent headline reported “Student’s Results in Social Studies Stagnate.”

In today’s edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, we listen in as Heartland Senior Fellow Bruno Behrend joins the Dave Elswick show to discuss the latest on Common Core. Behrend and Elswick talk about the the popular perceptions of common core and public education and why they are not the solution to our educational problems.

In today’s edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, Managing Editor of School Reform News Heather Kays, speaks with Kevin Chavous. Chavous is an executive counsel and founding board member of the American Federation of Children. Chavous discusses a new report about school choice. The report, titled “Alliance for School Choice, School Choice Yearbook 2014-2015, Breaking Down Barriers to Choice,” looks at the state of the school choice movement nationwide.

Likely the least regulated private economic sector going into the Age of the Barack Obama Administration – at least at the federal level – was the Internet. Which is largely why the Web has become an ever-evolving, free speech-free market Xanadu.

Discrimination has become a “dirty word.” It has come to carry the “politically incorrect” connotation of prejudice, hatefulness, racism, and cruel intolerance towards others in society. There is only one problem: which one of us does not discriminate? Indeed, everything we do reflects discriminating choices and decisions.

We live in an era in which few can even conceive of a world without the welfare state. Who would care for the old? How would people provide for their medical needs? What would happen to the disadvantaged and needy that fell upon hard times? In fact, there were free market solutions and non-government answers to these questions long before the modern Big Government Welfare State.

In this edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, managing editor of School Reform News, Heather Kays talks with David Boaz. Kays and Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute and author of the new book ‘The Libertarian Mind,’ discuss the fundamental problems with a government-run education system.

The Arizona House of Representatives Education Committee meeting on House Bill 2190 was strikingly similar to the landscape of American opinion on Common Core. Among the legislators and those who spoke at the meeting, there were some supporters, some starkly against Common Core, and some still on the fence.

A recent study of eminent domain takings and their associated state and local government tax revenues suggests buying grandma’s farmhouse to make room for a strip mall isn’t the automatic economic boon it’s claimed to be, leaving some wondering if the use of eminent domain as an economic booster is ethical.

According to Greg Harris, director of StudentsFirst Ohio, the state and Columbus School District have made little to no effort to let parents know about the parent trigger pilot program. Twenty schools in Columbus are eligible for reform under the state’s parent trigger law. The law passed as part of the state’s budget in 2011, and it empowers parents to decide how to reform chronically low-performing schools.

Amid public outcry, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) have changed their minds about Common Core. Both have spoken out in support of ceasing the use of Common Core State Standards despite that K–12 math and English standards have already been slowly rolled out and partially adopted

Only one week after Election Day, Washington, DC’s focus has shifted from furious campaigning to National Education Week and the Thought Leader Summit (held from Nov. 10–13), “a gathering of the leaders from education, business, and government who define and shape trends in public and private education.”

Education, business, and government leaders are gathering this week in Washington, DC to discuss the future of American education at the Thought Leader Summit (held from Nov. 10–13), an event held as a part of the National Education Initiative. Among the many topics that will be discussed is the advancement of online education, a technological gift that could save conservatism in America.

Efforts are underway by the Taiwan government for a government led restructuring to avoid bankruptcy (Plan to stop Taiwan’s high-speed rail going bust set for review). Since opening in 2007, this privately financed and operated system has been plagued with ridership well below projections. The Taiwan experience is consistent with the research showing that ridership on high-speed rail lines has been frequently over-projected.

The FCC’s invitation has prompted a “rainbow of policy and legal proposals” that would explore “new ideas for protecting and promoting the open Internet” by imposing Title II telecommunications regulation on America’s Internet infrastructure.

A fundamental fallacy of our time is that democracy is the open-sesame to peace, freedom, and prosperity. The political events surrounding what was called the ill-fated “Arab Spring” a couple of years ago was a based on the idea that “democracy” would solve all the problems of any society. But democracy in itself does not define or guarantee a free society. History has told many stories of democratic societies that have degenerated into corruption, plunder, and tyranny.